Fire Management

Fire management is the single most important skill in BBQ smoking. It's the difference between a pitmaster and someone who owns a smoker. Everything else — wood selection, rub recipes, wrapping technique — is secondary to maintaining a clean, consistent fire.

The Three Elements:

1. Coal Bed Management: The foundation. A healthy coal bed is a 3-4 inch layer of glowing coals at the bottom of your firebox. This bed provides consistent baseline heat and ignites new splits quickly. Without it, every split you add will smolder and produce dirty smoke. Build your coal bed before putting meat on — burn down 3-4 splits into coals as part of your preheat process.

2. Wood Addition Timing: Add a new split when the current one has burned down to about 50-60% of its original size. Place it directly on the hottest part of the coal bed. The new split will smoke heavily for 3-5 minutes as surface moisture evaporates — that's normal. Once it catches flame and the smoke thins out, you're good until the next addition. My typical rhythm is every 45-60 minutes.

3. Airflow Control: Oxygen feeds the fire. The intake damper on the firebox is your throttle — open for more heat, closed for less. The exhaust should stay wide open at all times. Small intake adjustments (quarter-inch) can shift temperature 10-15°F. Make one adjustment and wait 15 minutes before making another — the system takes time to respond.

Common Fire Management Mistakes: - Adding too much wood at once (smothers the fire) - Closing the exhaust damper (traps dirty smoke) - Letting the coal bed die (leads to smoldering and temp drops) - Using green/unseasoned wood (produces dirty smoke regardless of technique) - Making large damper adjustments (creates temperature swings)

Fire management is learned through practice. I tell my students to run their smoker empty 3-4 times before cooking meat on it. Cheap firewood is a lot less expensive than ruined briskets.